Posts Tagged “onion shipping”
A second serious snowstorm ranging from 12 to 18 inches has caused the collapse of more onion storage sheds in the Treasure Valley region. Onion haulers had been showing up at some buildings, but had nothing to load due to the chaos. The weather forecast predicted much less snowfall and a number of companies shut down packing lines January 20th to focus all efforts to removing snow from roofs. Some onion shippers in Nyssa, OR are describing the event as a catastrophe.
Four buildings collapsed January 18 and 19 at Owyhee Produce in Nyssa, which included the company’s main storage facility. The operation lost around 20 millions pounds of onions in the storage shed. The good news is the packing shed had minimal damage and was planning to resume onion shipping on a limited basis this week.
The previous snow, followed by rain that saturated it, also caused numerous collapses. (See January 13th Trucking Report)
Murakami Produce of Ontario, OR was keeping its fingers crossed and has yet to lose any buildings, perhaps because it moved packing line workers to roof tops to shovel snow.
Snake River Produce in Nyssa, OR lost a facility January 19th in which it stores packed product. The building had about 20,000 bags of onions stored. The company was planning to convert another building to storage. It had lost another storage building, which had contained trucks but no onions, in the first snowstorm. It was hoping to start packing and shipping this week.
Golden West Produce, based in Nyssa has lost six buildings — three in each storm. The latest damage included the packing shed. Overall, about 30 to 40 onion buildings have collapsed in the last two weeks.
F.O.B. onion prices at shipping point have been increasing as a result of the weather-induced chaos. Around the holidays the price was between $4 and $5 cwt., but has increased to $8 and very well could go up more.
Idaho and Malheur County onions – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.
A snowfall described by some that only occurs every 25 years hit the major onion shipping area of western Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon on January 8, damaging a number of structures, including some storage sheds. Transportation has been very difficult due to highways being closed, or are difficult to navigate.
Beside the large amounts of snow that fell over the weekend, rains followed that made the snow even heavier.
Snake River Produce of Nyssa, OR, lost a storage facility. Although it didn’t have onions stored there, several trucks reportedly sustained heavy damage. Three other Nyssa onion operations had packing and storage buildings collapse. One company reportedly lost about 4,200 bins of onions.
In Ontario, OR one shed lost about 2,000 bins of onions when the roof gave way.
Haun Packing of Weiser, ID, reported the loss of a storage building collapse. While the onions had already been moved out there was some equipment inside.
Collapses in the region were reported to be about 20 structures, including four or five packing sheds, with storage buildings comprising the rest.
Facilities costing hundreds of thousands of dollars even before losses of product or equipment are tallied are expected to be very significant.
Avocado Shipments
California used to the place if a produce trucker was hauling avocados. However, you load avocados now, chances are good the pick up will be occurring in South Texas with imported Mexican avocados.
Mexico provide year-round availability and a consistent, high-quality fruit and is the primary reason for the astronomical growth in popularity in the U.S.
Before Mexico, It used to be avocado availability was inconsistent due to the alternate-bearing nature of crops in both California and Chile. Supplies would be typically in good supply one year and tight the following season.
However, avocados grown Mexico year after year tend to provide a lot more consistency in supplies and quality. Buyers for major American retail grocery chains like that.
Additionally, Mexico has four blooms each year and farmers can grow in altitudes ranging from 4,000 feet to 8,000 feet. This is not the case in Chile or California.
Imported Mexican avocados account for at least 75 percent of the avocados shipped to U.S. markets.
Some California avocado growers, as well as a number of produce brokers and shippers in the U.S. sell more Mexican avocados than their own product grown in California.